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Questions & Answers

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spchristenspchristen

Tube Recommendation

I built and enjoy Skunkie’s EL34 amp earlier in the year.


I had been using JJ EL34L tubes in another amp prior to using them in the Skunie amp. I have noticed noisy tubes on amp power up. I didn’t think much of it until recently I started hearing some distortion. Swapping the tubes in the amp, the issue followed the tube.


I was going to order another set of JJs but wanted to see what tubes others are running or prefer.


To be clear, the amp did not cause this problem, I have had the tubes for a while. I’ve also been known to leave amps running overnight. By accident of course.


The JJs are a good value so likely I’ll get another set regardless.

46 Views

Ear834 Sound Issues

Hi,


It took a while, but I put together an EAR834 clone using a Hammond 369 Transformer and 3 electro-harmonix 7025 tubes. I have built one board from scratch, and I also bought a prebuilt one to test as well to see if I was doing something wrong.

I have an st-70 that I tried as an amplifier and a cheap chinese one and both give me the same results. The first track is the sound it makes when it first gets power. IT settles down after a minute. The second clip is the music at about 1/3 volume and it sounds terrible. The recordings are with the board straight from ebay with no real modifications. I also have one I built and they both sound the same. The only thing I can think of is maybe the solder connection to the rca jack is not the best. I am using…


78 Views
Skunkie
Skunkie
Oct 02

I see you installed both the 68K and 220K on the output area, I normally don't install the 68K ones but I don't think that is the problem. I have seen them supply 68K for the ones in the 220K position, are you sure those are correct? It sounds super distorted like the output is overloaded.

12A Speakers?

I’m returning to tube stereo after a 10 year hiatus. Years ago I had a beautiful Cary 300B amp and matching Cary preamp, driving a beautiful set of Soliloquy 2a3 speakers.  Today my finances are far more restricted and so I have just purchased.Reisong 10A that I am going to apply all of Stephe’s modifications to in the coming weeks. What I’m struggling with is a matching set of speakers. Reading through the various posts I recall her saying you needed, I think, 91 DB sensitivity or better. Because cash is limited I have been looking for a kit to get more bang for my buck, but cannot find anything I can afford with that efficiency. Of the production speakers, the Klipsch immediately come to mind. Their RP-600M (old version) are on sale it appears for around $350 and would be at the top end of my budget, but …


27 Views
Jacob Mckim
Jacob Mckim

Color Preamp Heater Grounding

Hi all, I am building the color preamp and having a lot of fun doing it. THis is my first tube build and first point-to-point build so I'm learning a ton. One thing that has me stumped is how to ground the 6.3v heater circuit. I'm using the Hammond 269jx without the center tap. The schematic shows the resistors after the 12au7 tubes - but I'm assuming they are supposed to go in the power supply half of the amp? Right now I have the 2 green wires from the transforer that carry the 6.3v connected to the solder lug as shown in the video and then I used yellow & purple to connect that to the rectifier tube and 12au7 tubes. That same lug I connected one of the 2 resistors to each and the other end of each resistor to the ground lug. Is that correct? I don't…


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25 Views
Skunkie
Skunkie
Aug 29

Yes, you are creating a virtual center tap with the two 100ohm 2W resistors. On that tag strip, one end of each resistor goes to each of the heater wires, the other end to the star ground point.

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